


Serpents Rising, Butter Melting

by iluvzuzu



Series: Second by Second [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Marauders' Era, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 02:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvzuzu/pseuds/iluvzuzu
Summary: In mid-December, Lily has become increasingly frustrated with her lack of close friendships in the face of the open and often violent blood purism at Hogwarts. The night before she returns home for Christmas, an encounter sets into motion a chain of events that will end up changing everything.





	Serpents Rising, Butter Melting

After her final falling out with Severus last spring, Lily hadn’t exactly tried to make new friends. She was friendly, of course, with the girls in her dormitory, particularly Mary Macdonald, but “friendly” was chatting over dinner and going shopping in Hogsmeade together; it was styling each other’s hair before dates, it was passing notes in class. It wasn’t what one needed when one needed a friend. And, more often than not these days, Lily found herself really, really needing a friend.

It did occur to her to seek out James, of course it occurred to her. But that was out of the question. Since she’d laid her blanket on him two weeks before, they’d somehow landed in a strangely polite relationship in which they both seemed to have agreed to bite their tongues rather than bicker with each other in classes or at meals, which had been all they’d done before the informal truce sparked by James’s father’s death. It occurred to her to talk to Remus, with whom Lily had had Prefect duties for the last year and a half, but he was so odd and pensive when they were alone together, she didn’t want to force her problems on him when it was clear he had his own. It occurred to her that even talking with Mary might be helpful in some way, but Mary was so innocent Lily felt that she just couldn’t bring up something serious with her for fear of upsetting her. In the end, she opted to keep her turmoil to herself. 

Her turmoil was this: There was nothing, absolutely nothing, she could do as a 16-years-old student, to aid the war effort. It was a very dangerous sort of war they were in, one with espionage and political backrooms rather than battlefields—yet. Every week, it seemed more and more anti-Muggle propaganda was appearing, more and more Wizards were becoming divided on the subject of blood purity, more and more Muggleborns and their supporters getting demoted or vanishing or being found dead. It was a war, undoubtedly. But in their scholastic bubble, most of the students felt nothing. Lily did, of course, being one of only four Muggleborns in her year; and surely the Slytherins did, though in the opposite direction. Snape and the others, they strode around school like Hitler Youth, all with matching haircuts and pins, claiming the snake-related paraphernalia was about house pride, not an endorsement of Salazar Slytherin’s own blood purism. At times, it seemed to Lily that it was safer to be a violent blood purist at Hogwarts than it was to be an average Muggleborn. 

Over the last dinner before the end of term, Mary prattled on about her plans to see her boyfriend back home while Lily lost herself in thought. Mary was Muggleborn, and she wasn’t worried about the war at all. She seemed not to think about it. She was a Gryffindor, so maybe when it came down to it she would fight… but Lily thought maybe Mary could go back home instead, marry Edward, live as a Muggle woman, protect herself and her family from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Surely it was just as brave to abandon this fantastical world for one’s own well-being as it was to fight in war. Courage came, Lily knew, in many different and often incomprehensible forms. It could not always be qualified. 

“That sounds fun,” she told Mary. “I’ve never been.”

“Oh, it’s lovely,” Mary assured her. “Many people don’t like the winter, but it’s my favourite time to go.” She went on about Edward and his brother Martin, and Martin’s new wife, and what a wonderful group they all were together. Lily found herself hoping desperately that Mary really would, if it got much worse, stay at home in the Muggle world. She realized, far too late into hoping this hope, that perhaps someone might wish the same thing for her. She looked across the Great Hall at Severus and his friends, their stupid hair, their awful smirks, and thought that maybe he wished she would go back to the Muggle world too, and never return. 

After dinner, Mary and the other girls in the dormitory went upstairs to finish packing, but Lily didn’t want to return to Gryffindor tower just yet. She wandered the halls aimlessly, hoping somehow she would get lost in the castle until the war had ended and she was free to exist in the Wizarding World without worry. Unfortunately, for all of Hogwarts’ complications, she actually knew the place too well to get lost easily. She was supposed to be going to Professor Slughorn’s Christmas party, but she couldn’t bear the thought of mingling with people who, deep down, hated her. Even Slughorn himself wasn’t an outright blood purist, but always felt the need to mention Lily’s blood status along with her accomplishments as if it made them even more impressive. As if she had overcome great obstacles by being talented despite her parentage. 

She decided she’d better get changed for the party despite her apprehension, because it really was a great place to make contacts, even if some of those contacts might be in agreement with those who would keep people like her out of Wizarding politics, law, medicine, or anything else she was remotely considering. Maybe they’d be like Slughorn—the well-meaning purists who didn’t want her dead so much as they were surprised she was capable of doing anything. Mulling all this over, she made it back to the Gryffindor common room without noticing how she’d gotten there. 

As she dressed, the other girls were drinking and playing cards. Claire offered her some firewhiskey, and she accepted a swig, saying she was off to Slughorn’s and would need it. The girls all exploded into various coos of “Lucky!” or snorts of disdain. “It’s so elitist,” said Xaz. “I wouldn’t want to be around those snobs.”

“Only because you’re already around those snobs on holidays, Abbott,” teased Addie. “Not all of us are Sacred Twenty-Eight, we can’t just have our famous uncles employ us.”

“What’s Sacred Twenty-Eight?” asked Mary, looking back and forth between Addie and Xarina. 

“It’s not real,” Xaz said dismissively, laying down some cards face-up.

“It’s just some blood purist bollocks,” Claire added. “Shit! You got me, Xaz.” She handed Xarina her cards in defeat and drew another. “Some purist like forty years ago made a record of who had ‘enough’ magic blood left in their family lines.” Lily’s head snapped up. She’d heard the phrase before; it had been explained to her as something that referred to ancient Wizarding families, something historical and interesting, like being able to trace your lineage to some 16th century duke or something. She hadn’t known—though of course she should have—that in the end it was all about blood purism.

“Like I said, made-up,” Xaz said. 

“You just want it to be made-up so you don’t have to think about whether your family are purists or not,” Addie smirked, defeating Xaz’s hand. “Gotcha.”

“Oh,” Mary said, looking put-out. 

“Don’t worry, Mary,” Claire said gently. “No one really believes that stuff anyway. Here, have more whiskey.”

“Well, I’m off,” Lily said in the slightly tense silence as Mary took a deep pull. The girls all waved her off and wished her a good time, but now she felt even worse about attending the event than she had before, if that were possible. She made her way to Slughorn’s office wishing she’d taken more firewhiskey, and hoped that someone at the party would offer her some. As usual, she’d have no friends here, but perhaps some allies would make an appearance. 

She entered a party in full swing; smoke and glitter filled the air, candles and baubles floated above the heads of the guests, and everyone was chatting raucously, competitively. Lily could feel the saturation of power in the room, could feel who was trying to get in the good graces of whom, could feel the dynamics shift every time someone moved. And there was Professor Slughorn in the thick of it, chomping on some candied fruit with his eyes ablaze, surveying his little kingdom. 

Lily moved to talk to him, but she noticed some of the Blood Purist Jugend in the corner, laughing loudly and talking to a man with fashionable black robes and a snake pin at his collar. The man met her eyes and smirked, saying something to Wylson Avery and nodding in Lily’s direction. Avery looked around, and smirked too when he spotted Lily watching them. She could only guess what was said then, because Slughorn blocked her eyeline with his round form and greeted her warmly. “Ah, Miss Lily Evans! I’m thrilled you could make it, my girl. You simply must meet Elysia Travers, she’s with the Department of International Magical Cooperation, in the Office of Law. I mentioned to her that you were interested in pursuing something in the ministry and perhaps in the department itself!” Lily allowed herself to be guided toward a pinched-looking woman with deep-set eyes who spoke with a French lilt when she introduced herself. 

Lily made small talk with her, but her eyes kept finding the boys in the corner. Sirius’s brother was among them, looking horribly young and handsome and devilish, so much like Sirius, though Regulus burned cold instead of hot. They were certainly watching her, she knew it. They were probably gossiping about what a Muggleborn like her was doing there, with them, their caliber. That man was probably someone important, someone with influence, someone who wanted her out just as much as the boys did. Her mother had always said that the best revenge was success; she would show them. She made her rounds at the party, meeting (and absolutely dazzling) what seemed like every ministry employee Slughorn knew, until finally it was late enough that it wouldn’t be impolite to leave. She thanked Slughorn for the invitation, and made her way out of the room. 

She hadn’t gotten far down the corridor when she heard footsteps behind her. Her hand was on her wand in her pocket as she turned around, but no one was there. Suspicious, she continued walking, trying not to speed up in case someone was watching her. Mocking her. As if on cue, sing-songy voice then echoed against the stone, “Oh, Mudblood!” 

She kept walking. She wouldn’t turn around. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Just as she told herself this, a hex flew over her shoulder and she instinctively whipped around with her wand drawn. “Alright, then!” she called out readily. “You want a duel? Let’s duel. Otherwise, put your wand away and run back to whatever little snakehole you slithered out of.” 

Suddenly, black ropes twined themselves around her arms and mouth. She gasped into them, but could barely breathe. Her arm wouldn’t bend at the elbow, but her wrist was free. She silently attempted to vanish them, but since they were conjured, they didn’t fade. Her feet were still mobile, so she turned in the direction the ropes had originated and cast with all her might the disarming spell. In a matter of microseconds the perpetrator’s wand came flying through the air, the ropes disappeared, and Lily’s left hand snapped up to catch the wand. She put up a shield charm around herself immediately, and waited for the next attack; but it never came. Instead, from around the corner, Potter and his cronies appeared, dragging unconscious Slytherins behind them. 

“Happy Christmas, Evans,” James said brightly. “We brought gifts.” 

Lily stared in awe and shock at the scene before her. “What,” she started to ask, before realizing that she didn’t have an end to the question. 

“We happened to be in the neighborhood,” Sirius said, and Peter snorted delightedly. “Thought you could use some help.”

“It was the neighborly thing to do,” added Remus, and Sirius sent him a sly, approving grin. 

Avery and Mulciber lay on the floor, clearly Stupefied. Lily surveyed them dispassionately, trying not to think about what they might have done had the boys not arrived. “Well,” Lily said slowly. “Thank you.”

The boys all nodded sharply in response, seeming genuinely humble now that their skills were being used to prevent serious harm rather than to show off. Lily found this… somewhat charming. 

“You were at the party, right?” Peter asked. 

“Yes,” Lily said distantly. “They must have followed me out, but I don’t know why.”

“Because they’re arseholes,” Sirius said grimly. “Just lucky for my dear brother he wasn’t with them, or he’d be on the floor too, you can mark my words.” 

“Let’s get out of here,” Remus said quickly, “they’ll wake up soon, and I personally would prefer not to be here when they do.”

After Sirius magicked the words “pure scum” onto Avery’s and Mulciber’s foreheads, he and Remus led the way out of the wing, heading for Gryffindor with Peter mere steps behind them. Lily chucked the wand she’d been holding on the ground in the next corridor over, feeling petty and powerless as she did so. They had attacked her and would have done who knows what, and all she could muster was making them look for their wand awhile? Pathetic. 

When she rejoined the group, she found that James was waiting for her, which she both appreciated and feared. “You alright?” he asked quietly. 

“Honestly?” she sighed. “I’m bloody furious.” 

James laughed. “I’d expect nothing less. Should we report them? I bet if we told McGonagall she’d explode her snap.”

Lily looked over at him at the word ‘we,’ but kept walking. “What’s the point?” she said miserably. “That lot get away with everything somehow. McGonagall would just talk to Slughorn, and he won’t hear a word against them.” James frowned, but didn’t say anything. They ascended the stairs behind the other three, who were now all excitedly reliving the last five minutes. Lily said, “It was lucky you were there.”

“Oh, I think you’d’ve handled yourself just fine,” James said. “It might’ve taken a bit more out of you, but you’d’ve done it.”

Lily laughed. “Still,” she said, sobering up. “Thank you, again. I don’t say that lightly.”

“I know.” They continued in silence until they reached the portrait that covered the entrance to the tower. Lily didn’t want to return to her dormitory, but what choice did she have? The common room was a drunken disaster of a party (one she should probably report, but she wouldn’t—let the fifth year Prefects take the responsibility for once) and the rest of the castle seemed alarmingly unsafe at the moment. Perhaps she would just cast a silencing charm on her bed and go to sleep while the other girls continued whatever they were up to. But she didn’t find that appealing either; she was wide awake. The five of them entered together and the boys started towards their dormitory when James said, “You’re going home for Christmas, I reckon?”

“Yeah,” Lily said with a sigh. 

“So we’ve only got one night, then,” he continued, his face looking knowing, and charming, and smug.

Lily’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

He asked, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, “Care to join us?” 

It was an odd suggestion, and they all felt how odd it was the moment James said it. But something about the way Lily said “Sure” put them all at ease. Sirius grinned, Remus smiled, and Peter positively beamed. And James… James softened all over, like melting butter. Tension Lily had never noticed him holding simply flowed out. For the first time, Lily considered that she’d really, dreadfully misjudged this lot. Maybe there were friends in them after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to continue this in a more timely manner than I have been, but with me, who knows, right? Thank you for reading!


End file.
